The New Negro: Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938

Published by Princeton University Press 2008

The New Negro

Readings on Race, Representation, and African American Culture, 1892-1938

Edited by: Henry Louis Gates and Gene Andrew Jarrett

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400827879

Overview
Contents

About this book

When African American intellectuals announced the birth of the "New Negro" around the turn of the twentieth century, they were attempting through a bold act of renaming to change the way blacks were depicted and perceived in America. By challenging stereotypes of the Old Negro, and declaring that the New Negro was capable of high achievement, black writers tried to revolutionize how whites viewed blacks--and how blacks viewed themselves. Nothing less than a strategy to re-create the public face of "the race," the New Negro became a dominant figure of racial uplift between Reconstruction and World War II, as well as a central idea of the Harlem, or New Negro, Renaissance. Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Gene Andrew Jarrett, The New Negro collects more than one hundred canonical and lesser-known essays published between 1892 and 1938 that examine the issues of race and representation in African American culture.

These readings--by writers including W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alain Locke, Carl Van Vechten, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright--discuss the trope of the New Negro, and the milieu in which this figure existed, from almost every conceivable angle. Political essays are joined by essays on African American fiction, poetry, drama, music, painting, and sculpture. More than fascinating historical documents, these essays remain essential to the way African American identity and history are still understood today.

Author / Editor information

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. His most recent books include Finding Oprah's Roots and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley. Gene Andrew Jarrett is associate professor of English and African American studies at Boston University. He is the author of Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature.

Reviews

"The New Negro is a valuable collection of essays that is accessible to scholars, teachers, and those generally interested in African-American history. When placed within the context of recent New Negro scholarship, the anthology reinforces the need to expand the depth and breadth of research into Post-Reconstruction representations of race in African-American culture."---Gabriel A. Briggs, Callaloo

"Because 'New Negro' is really just a catchprase for the capacious topic of race in America, this is less an anthology than a mix of articles, criticism, essays, theories, calls to action and commentary by people both black and white, ranging from the famous (Richard Wright, James Weldon Johnson, H.L. Mencken) to those lesser known but prominent in their time (Alain Locke). The result is a spirited...dialectic tracing the most intense period of New Negro discussions, between 1892 and 1938."---Erin Aubry Kaplan, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Recent years have seen an explosion of writings on the so-called new Negro. . . . Now Gates and Jarrett lend their considerable voices to the discussion. Including an excellent introduction that situates the debate, this anthology collects some 100 essays on the trope of the new Negro between 1892 and 1938, years that broadly encompass the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. . . . The book covers not only literature but also music, theater, and the fine arts and convincingly links them with social and political happenings of the period. . . . [O]verall this is a masterful piece of work."---L. J. Parascandola, Long Island University, for, CHOICE

"This illuminating and indispensable anthology lays bare a fascinating genealogy of the most frequently invoked trope in the history of U.S. Black culture and politics: The New Negro. Professors Gates and Jarrett take us on an intellectual journey through a crucial half century of Black thought that remains relevant in our time!"—Cornel West, author of Race Matters and Democracy Matters

"Bringing together a comprehensive body of essays from a wide range of fields, this anthology will be invaluable to scholars and students of the period from the late nineteenth century to the end of the Harlem Renaissance. It provides not only canonical texts, but also lesser-known pieces, so that it will enhance our understanding of this important period."—Valerie Smith, Princeton University

"This anthology will make a marvelous companion to any course on the Harlem Renaissance or the 'New Negro' phenomenon, and an excellent resource even for advanced scholars looking for a compendium of essays that contextualize African American cultural and political thought between the 1890s and 1930s. The range of authors is admirable and many of these essays are immensely readable—pithy, vituperative, inspiriting, and humorous by turns."—George B. Hutchinson, Indiana University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Henry Louis Gates and Gene Andrew Jarrett Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
I. The new Negro
"The New Negro" Rev. W. E. C. Wright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
An Appeal to the King (1895) J. W. E. Bowen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Afro-American Education (1900) Booker T. Washington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
Heroes and Martyrs (1900) N. B. Wood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
The Club Movement among Colored Women of America (1900) Fannie Barrier Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
The Intellectual Progress of the Colored Women of the United States Since the Emancipation Proclamation (1894) Fannie Barrier Williams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
Rough Sketches: A Study of the Features of the New Negro Woman (1904) John Henry Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Rough Sketches: The New Negro Man (1904) John Henry Adams Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
An Ostracised Race in Ferment: The Conflict of Negro Parties and Negro Leaders Over Methods of Dealing with Their Own Problem (1908) Ray Stannard Baker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
The New Negro (1916) William Pickens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Returning Soldiers (1919) W .E. B. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
The New Negro and the U.N.I.A. (1919) Marcus Garuey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
As to "The New Negro" (1920) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
The New Negro (1920) Geroid Robinson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
The New Politics (1920) Hubert H. Harrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Education and the Race (1925) Hubert H. Harrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
The New Negro (1925) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	112
Sterling Brown: The New Negro Folk-Poet (1934) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
The New Negro Hokum (1928) Gustavus Adolphus Stewart Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
Who Is the New Negro, and Why ? (1927) J. A. Rogers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
The New Negro as Revealed in His Poetry (1927) Charlotte E. Taussig Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
La Bourgeoisie Noire (1928-30) E. Franklin Frazier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
The New Negro in Paris (1937) Claude McKay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
The Rise of the Black Internationale (1938) George S. Schuyler Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
II. How Should Art Portray Negro?
One Phase of American Literature (1892) Anna Julia Cooper Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Negro in Literature (1899) Paul Laurence Dunbar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
The Negro in Books (1916) Charles W. Chesnutt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
The Negro in Literature (1924) William Stanley Braithwaite Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed (1926) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Some Aspects of the Negro Interpreted in Contemporary American and European Literature (1934) John Frederick Matheus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	204
The Negro in Recent American Literature (1935) Eugene Clay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
III. The Renaissance
The Younger Literary Movement (1924) W. E. B. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Negro Youth Speaks (1925) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Uncle Tom's Mansion (1925) Carl van Vechten Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
The Aframerican: New Style (1926) H. L. Mencken Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	227
The Negro Renaissance (1926) Carl van Doren Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
The Negro Renaissance (1926) Walter White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
The Negro Literary Renaissance (1927) Benjamin Brawley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
The Negro "Renaissance" (1930) Lloyd Morris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
The Negro Renaissance (1932) Martha Gruening Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Our Negro "Intellectuals" (1928) Allison Davis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
For a Negro Magazine (1934) Claude McKay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
IV. Art or Propaganda
Art and Propaganda (1921) Eric Walrond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Propaganda in the Theatre (1924) Willis Richardson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Criteria of Negro Art (1926) W. E. B. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
Art or Propaganda? (1928) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
Propaganda—or Poetry? (1936) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
Blueprint for Negro Writing (1937) Richard Wright Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	268
V. Literature: History and Theory
Afro-American Women and Their Work (1895) Katherine Tillman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	277
The Value of Race Literature (1895) Victoria Earle Matthews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
The Writing of a Novel (after 1899) Charles W. Chesnutt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
The Negro in Literature and Art (1913) W. E. B. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Negro Literature for Negro Pupils (1922) Alice Dunbar-Nelson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	302
Negro Race Consciousness as Reflected in Race Literature (1923) Robert E. Park Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Colored Authors and Their Contributions to the World's Literature (1923) Irene M. Gaines Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
A Point of View (An Opportunity Dinner Reaction) (1925) Brenda Ray Moryck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	321
The Negro Digs Up His Past (1925) Arthur A. Schomburg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
A Note on the Sociology of Negro Literature (1925) Fred Dearmond Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	330
Negro Art, Past and Present (1926) Albert C. Barnes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	333
Survey of Negro Literature, 1760-1926 (1927) Thomas L. G. Oxley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
Race Prejudice and the Negro Artist (1928) James Weldon Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Negro Literature (1931) Walter White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	350
Characteristics of Negro Expression (1934) Zora Neale Hurston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
The Negro Genius (1937) Benjamin Brawley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	364
VI. Literature the Literary Profession and the Marketplace
On a Certain Condescension in White Publishers (1922) Hubert H. Harrison Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373
The Negro Audience (1925) Willis Richardson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375
Negro Authors Must Eat (1929) George W. Jacobs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	376
The Dilemma of the Negro Author (1928) James Weldon Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	378
Negro Authors and White Publishers (1929) James Weldon Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	382
Our Literary Audience (1930) Sterling A. Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	384
A Negro Writer to His Critics (1932) Claude McKay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	390
Problems Facing the Negro Writer Today (1937) Eugene C. Holmes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	394
VII. Literature Poetry
Some Contemporary Poets of the Negro Race (1919) William Stanley Braithwaite Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
Dunbar's Poetry in Literary English (1921) Charles Eaton Burch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	407
The Negro in Poetry (1923) John Edward Bruce Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	410
Old School of Negro "Critics" Hard on Paul Laurence Dunbar (1924) Thomas Millard Henry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	413
Negro Poets and Their Poetry (1928) Wallace Thurman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415
The Negro Poets of the United States (1926) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	422
Mr. Garvey as a Poet (1927) T.Thomas Fortune Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	426
VII. Music Spirituals
Negro Music (1899) Paul Laurence Dunbar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	447
The Sorrow Songs (1903) W. E. B. Du Bois Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	448
Negro Folk Song (1923) John W. Work Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	453
The Negro Spirituals (1925) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	457
The Negro Spirituals and American Art (1926) Laurence Buermeyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	464
Self-Portraiture and Social Criticism in Negro Folk-Song (1927) B. A. Botkin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	467
Spirituals and Neo-Spirituals (1934) Zora Neale Hurston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	473
IX. Music Jazz
"Whence Comes Jass?" (1917) Walter Kingsley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	479
That Mysterious "Jazz" (1919) Grenville Vernon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	480
Jazzing Away Prejudice (1919) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	481
Where The Etude Stands on Jazz (1924) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	482
Jazz at Home (1925) J. A. Rogers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	492
From The Appeal of Jazz (1927) R. W. S. Mendl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	496
Hot Jazz (1934) Robert Goffin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	499
From Swing That Music (1936) Louis Armstrong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	501
X. Theater
The Negro in Drama (1922) Rollin Lynde Hartt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	507
Reflections on O'NeilPs Plays (1924) Paul Robeson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	510
The Drama of Negro Life (1925) Montgomery Gregory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	511
The Gift of Laughter (1925) Jessie Fauset Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	515
Same Old Blues (1925) Theophilus Lewis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	518
The Drama of Negro Life (1926) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	521
The Negro in the Field of Drama (1928) Rowena Woodham Jelliffe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	524
Has the Negro a Place in the Theatre? (1928) Jules Bledsoe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	526
A Criticism of the Negro Drama as It Relates to the Negro Dramatist and Artist (1928) Eulalie Spence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	527
From Black Manhattan (1930) James Weldon Johnson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	528
The Negro Theatre—A Dodo Bird (1934) Ralph Matthews Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	532
XI. The Fine Arts
A Note on African Art (1924) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	537
The American Negro as Artist (1931) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	541
African Art: Classic Style (1935) Alain Locke Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	546
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1924) Jessie Fauset Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	549
African Plastic in Contemporary Art (1927) Harry Alan Potamkin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	551
The Negro Artist and Modern Art (1934) Romare Bearden Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	554
Bibliography of Primary Sources Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	559
Suggested Further Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	563
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	567